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Apr 4, 2023 · 18m · top-founders

How she went $0 to $35k MRR in 12 months selling SaaS to RIA's

Gina Sanchez · 10m spoken Nathan Latka · 5m spoken
0:00 / 0:00

gold bands on the timeline = statements, start to end. Hover to read, click to jump. CC turns on captions

In this episode of Conversations with Nathan Latka, Chantico Technology founder and CEO Gina Sanchez discusses how her risk-modeling software reached $35,000 in monthly recurring revenue within twelve months by serving registered investment advisors. Sanchez details the company's recursive partitioning technology, pre-seed fundraising, enterprise pricing strategy, and roadmap toward institutional scale.

How this conversation actually went

Every chapter scored 0–10 on four independent dynamics. Hover any point for the reasoning behind the score. Nathan holds 34.3% of the talking time here. How this is scored →

Nathan as informed peer 4.5 Guest teaching 3.3 Guest disagreement 2.0 Nathan pushing back 3.5
05100:0010:000:37–3:56 · Nathan as informed peer 3/10 Episode Preview: Chantico Technology's Growth and Metrics Latka sets up the background and asks how Sanchez discovered the core problem. Sanchez explains her career history and how recursive partitioning models extreme portfolio risk where traditional linear regression fails.3:57–5:58 · Nathan as informed peer 4/10 Fundraising History, Market Timing, and Valuation Latka drills into seed round mechanics, dilutive ownership percentages, and post-money valuation. Sanchez details the timing of their raise amidst market volatility and SVB fallout.5:59–10:20 · Nathan as informed peer 6/10 How Recursive Partitioning Models Extreme Economic Scenarios Latka challenges the feasibility of predicting black swan events, introducing a hypothetical transatlantic cable cut. Sanchez educates him by explaining that the platform models secondary economic cascades rather than forecasting the initial catalytic event itself.10:20–12:36 · Nathan as informed peer 6/10 Pricing Strategy and Initial Beta Customer Base Latka notices Sanchez using future tense about their first client and aggressively presses to clarify if the company is pre-revenue. He categorizes her enterprise versus self-serve RIA go-to-market motion.12:37–14:57 · Nathan as informed peer 5/10 Customer Expansion, Revenue Milestones, and Growth Projections Latka calculates monthly recurring revenue from user seats and verifies current run rate versus targets. Sanchez outlines expansion paths and revenue targets up to $10M.14:57–17:27 · Nathan as informed peer 3/10 Team Structure, Co-Founders, and Equity Split Latka asks about founder equity distribution and proceeds through the rapid-fire questions. Sanchez straightforwardly defends taking the majority share of equity because the core intellectual property was hers.0:37–3:56 · Guest teaching 4/10 Episode Preview: Chantico Technology's Growth and Metrics Latka sets up the background and asks how Sanchez discovered the core problem. Sanchez explains her career history and how recursive partitioning models extreme portfolio risk where traditional linear regression fails.3:57–5:58 · Guest teaching 2/10 Fundraising History, Market Timing, and Valuation Latka drills into seed round mechanics, dilutive ownership percentages, and post-money valuation. Sanchez details the timing of their raise amidst market volatility and SVB fallout.5:59–10:20 · Guest teaching 7/10 How Recursive Partitioning Models Extreme Economic Scenarios Latka challenges the feasibility of predicting black swan events, introducing a hypothetical transatlantic cable cut. Sanchez educates him by explaining that the platform models secondary economic cascades rather than forecasting the initial catalytic event itself.10:20–12:36 · Guest teaching 3/10 Pricing Strategy and Initial Beta Customer Base Latka notices Sanchez using future tense about their first client and aggressively presses to clarify if the company is pre-revenue. He categorizes her enterprise versus self-serve RIA go-to-market motion.12:37–14:57 · Guest teaching 3/10 Customer Expansion, Revenue Milestones, and Growth Projections Latka calculates monthly recurring revenue from user seats and verifies current run rate versus targets. Sanchez outlines expansion paths and revenue targets up to $10M.14:57–17:27 · Guest teaching 1/10 Team Structure, Co-Founders, and Equity Split Latka asks about founder equity distribution and proceeds through the rapid-fire questions. Sanchez straightforwardly defends taking the majority share of equity because the core intellectual property was hers.0:37–3:56 · Guest disagreement 1/10 Episode Preview: Chantico Technology's Growth and Metrics Latka sets up the background and asks how Sanchez discovered the core problem. Sanchez explains her career history and how recursive partitioning models extreme portfolio risk where traditional linear regression fails.3:57–5:58 · Guest disagreement 1/10 Fundraising History, Market Timing, and Valuation Latka drills into seed round mechanics, dilutive ownership percentages, and post-money valuation. Sanchez details the timing of their raise amidst market volatility and SVB fallout.5:59–10:20 · Guest disagreement 4/10 How Recursive Partitioning Models Extreme Economic Scenarios Latka challenges the feasibility of predicting black swan events, introducing a hypothetical transatlantic cable cut. Sanchez educates him by explaining that the platform models secondary economic cascades rather than forecasting the initial catalytic event itself.10:20–12:36 · Guest disagreement 2/10 Pricing Strategy and Initial Beta Customer Base Latka notices Sanchez using future tense about their first client and aggressively presses to clarify if the company is pre-revenue. He categorizes her enterprise versus self-serve RIA go-to-market motion.12:37–14:57 · Guest disagreement 1/10 Customer Expansion, Revenue Milestones, and Growth Projections Latka calculates monthly recurring revenue from user seats and verifies current run rate versus targets. Sanchez outlines expansion paths and revenue targets up to $10M.14:57–17:27 · Guest disagreement 3/10 Team Structure, Co-Founders, and Equity Split Latka asks about founder equity distribution and proceeds through the rapid-fire questions. Sanchez straightforwardly defends taking the majority share of equity because the core intellectual property was hers.0:37–3:56 · Nathan pushing back 1/10 Episode Preview: Chantico Technology's Growth and Metrics Latka sets up the background and asks how Sanchez discovered the core problem. Sanchez explains her career history and how recursive partitioning models extreme portfolio risk where traditional linear regression fails.3:57–5:58 · Nathan pushing back 2/10 Fundraising History, Market Timing, and Valuation Latka drills into seed round mechanics, dilutive ownership percentages, and post-money valuation. Sanchez details the timing of their raise amidst market volatility and SVB fallout.5:59–10:20 · Nathan pushing back 6/10 How Recursive Partitioning Models Extreme Economic Scenarios Latka challenges the feasibility of predicting black swan events, introducing a hypothetical transatlantic cable cut. Sanchez educates him by explaining that the platform models secondary economic cascades rather than forecasting the initial catalytic event itself.10:20–12:36 · Nathan pushing back 7/10 Pricing Strategy and Initial Beta Customer Base Latka notices Sanchez using future tense about their first client and aggressively presses to clarify if the company is pre-revenue. He categorizes her enterprise versus self-serve RIA go-to-market motion.12:37–14:57 · Nathan pushing back 4/10 Customer Expansion, Revenue Milestones, and Growth Projections Latka calculates monthly recurring revenue from user seats and verifies current run rate versus targets. Sanchez outlines expansion paths and revenue targets up to $10M.14:57–17:27 · Nathan pushing back 1/10 Team Structure, Co-Founders, and Equity Split Latka asks about founder equity distribution and proceeds through the rapid-fire questions. Sanchez straightforwardly defends taking the majority share of equity because the core intellectual property was hers.

speaking balance: gold is Nathan, purple is the guest (3 minute bins)

0:00 · Nathan 54.6% · guest 45.4%0:00 · Nathan 54.6% · guest 45.4%3:00 · Nathan 17.3% · guest 82.7%3:00 · Nathan 17.3% · guest 82.7%6:00 · Nathan 29.9% · guest 70.1%6:00 · Nathan 29.9% · guest 70.1%9:00 · Nathan 26.3% · guest 73.7%9:00 · Nathan 26.3% · guest 73.7%12:00 · Nathan 32.4% · guest 67.6%12:00 · Nathan 32.4% · guest 67.6%15:00 · Nathan 46.8% · guest 53.2%15:00 · Nathan 46.8% · guest 53.2%18:00 · Nathan 0% · guest 100%18:00 · Nathan 0% · guest 100%
Sharpest disagreement ▶ 6:22 Sanchez rejects crystal ball framing

Sanchez firmly refutes Latka's assumption that the company attempts to predict black swan events, clarifying that they solely map portfolio outcome cascades.

 Hardest push from Nathan ▶ 11:04 Latka challenges ambiguous customer status

Latka immediately catches Sanchez saying their first client 'is going to be' and interrupts to determine whether the company is still pre-revenue.

 Biggest teaching moment ▶ 8:48 Sanchez walks through downstream economic cascade modeling

Sanchez dismantles Latka's cable-cut hypothetical by mapping out immediate e-commerce contractions, profitability drops, and labor market shifts.

 Nathan holds their own ▶ 12:09 Latka breaks down SaaS sales motions

Latka demonstrates SaaS business model expertise by contrasting a monolithic enterprise Blackstone sale against a high-volume low-seat RIA distribution strategy.
the scores for every segment, with the reasoning behind each
ChapterTopicNathan as informed peerGuest teachingGuest disagreementNathan pushing backWhy
Episode Preview: Chantico Technology's Growth and Metrics 3411 Latka sets up the background and asks how Sanchez discovered the core problem. Sanchez explains her career history and how recursive partitioning models extreme portfolio risk where traditional linear regression fails.
Fundraising History, Market Timing, and Valuation 4212 Latka drills into seed round mechanics, dilutive ownership percentages, and post-money valuation. Sanchez details the timing of their raise amidst market volatility and SVB fallout.
How Recursive Partitioning Models Extreme Economic Scenarios 6746 Latka challenges the feasibility of predicting black swan events, introducing a hypothetical transatlantic cable cut. Sanchez educates him by explaining that the platform models secondary economic cascades rather than forecasting the initial catalytic event itself.
Pricing Strategy and Initial Beta Customer Base 6327 Latka notices Sanchez using future tense about their first client and aggressively presses to clarify if the company is pre-revenue. He categorizes her enterprise versus self-serve RIA go-to-market motion.
Customer Expansion, Revenue Milestones, and Growth Projections 5314 Latka calculates monthly recurring revenue from user seats and verifies current run rate versus targets. Sanchez outlines expansion paths and revenue targets up to $10M.
Team Structure, Co-Founders, and Equity Split 3131 Latka asks about founder equity distribution and proceeds through the rapid-fire questions. Sanchez straightforwardly defends taking the majority share of equity because the core intellectual property was hers.

Statements from this episode (9)

Insight
Sanchez: Recursive partitioning models extreme market events better than regression
“What I found was that while regression was really good at kind of guessing what the average expectation would be recursive partitioning was really good at guessing the extremes.”
Gina Sanchez Apr 4, 2023 ▶ 2:18
Disclosure
Sanchez: Chantico raised $425k in 2022 from Ulu and 2045 Ventures
“So so we actually raised 425,000 dollars in 2021 sorry, in 2022 from 20 45 ventures, Ulu Ventures, and a handful of individuals, and we're we added to that actually early this year and so we're just finalizing the second half of that seed round, which it's bee…”
Gina Sanchez Apr 4, 2023 ▶ 4:07
Disclosure
Sanchez: SVB collapse unexpectedly accelerated Chantico's funding process
“So, and strangely, you know, we were really concerned that, that the meltdown in Silicon Valley Bank was going to be was going to be sort of, you know, a real death blow. To our funding process, but actually our funding set up after that, probably because peop…”
Gina Sanchez Apr 4, 2023 ▶ 4:51
Disclosure
Sanchez: Chantico is raising at a $5M valuation
“So we're actually selling at a five million dollar valuation.”
Gina Sanchez Apr 4, 2023 ▶ 5:50
Insight
Sanchez: Rising oil, rising rates, and Fed contraction devastate portfolios
“Oil prices will go up that interest rates will go up, and that the Fed balance sheet will start to retrench. That tends to be a death blow to a number of portfolios. It doesn't matter what caused it, and so I think a lot of people try to focus on the crystal b…”
Gina Sanchez Apr 4, 2023 ▶ 7:00
Disclosure
Sanchez: Chantico charges $350 per user per month
“We're selling this with the SaaS product and the SaaS product has the standard kind of fees, you know, 350 dollars per user per month, right? So think about that as about 5000 dollars per user per year.”
Gina Sanchez Apr 4, 2023 ▶ 10:31
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Sanchez: Chantico is generating around $33k to $35k per month in revenue
“No, no, no, that's actually, that's where we're at. That was our goal for this, was just to cover our run rate.”
Gina Sanchez Apr 4, 2023 ▶ 14:05
Prediction Not checkable as stated
Sanchez: Chantico can reach $10M revenue before needing VC backing
“That million dollars can get to about ten million dollars reasonably with, we have really good confidence that we can get to ten million where we're really going to need our venture backers to get behind us is growing from 10 to a hundred.”
Gina Sanchez Apr 4, 2023 ▶ 14:38
Insight
Sanchez: Raising venture capital forces founders to confront internal insecurities
“We have these insecurities, and I will tell you that going through a venture round forces you to overcome those.”
Gina Sanchez Apr 4, 2023 ▶ 17:17
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